El Olmito is solid, not fancy. Tables and chairs are heavy. Every table has a roll of paper towel…read moreinstead of a dainty napkin holder. The service is very good, although there are sometimes more customers than staff! I've eaten here a few times a year for decades. Every time I go back I ask myself "Why did I wait so long to come back?" Because the food is THAT good! I was very happy, and very, very full when I left. Worth a trip, every time!

Cravable tacos - one of the best locations in town. Fast, friendly service. Clean location. Lots of…read moreoptions. We tried chicken, carnitas and steak. The salsa verde is amazing.

Muscatine is blessed with some better than average Mexican restaurants. Before this visit, I…read moreranked them in descending order; El Olmito, El Allende, Las Lomas, La Guadalajara. I finally made it to Izalco and after reading the three reviews, concur, this is the best in Muscatine. El Olmito is very good authentic food, but there is a more complete package here at Izalco. What I found was very authentic food and a surprisingly extensive menu. Since it is that time of the year, when I arrived at the nearly abandoned western mall it was dark. I was not sure they were open. If you follow my footsteps to eat at Izalco, don't be deterred by the appearance. Keep going. Yes the place is open and yes it is a good place to eat. I was surprised at the extent of the menu and ordered three things, which was way, way more than I could eat. I asked for a small posole, a carnitas dinner and one pupusa queso. The carnitas arrived first and I knew I was in trouble (too much food). The serving was huge and came with soft corn tortillas. The meat was delicious, well roasted with perfect salt. It was juicy and tender. The frijoles and rice were pretty normal, but good. The carnitas were accompanied by a generous serving of salsa verde. This was excellent, with a little heat and was really great with the pork. While I was attacking the pile of pork, the pupusa arrived. I enjoyed it with some of the red salsa that is served with the chips. This salsa may be more Salvadoran influenced, it is very simple and not exciting. I improved that with some lime juice, salt and bottled Tapatio. This was perfect with the pupusa. They have a list of fillings for the pupusas, I just wanted to keep it to simple queso since I had ordered so much. Then the "small" posole came. I know how big the macho orders of soups can be in Mexican restaurants. The small is still more than enough. As is the norm, I doctored the posole with lime, salt and some of the salsa verde. The posole did not come with the usual condiments; cabbage, radish, onion, crushed dry chile. Perhaps it does when you order the grande bowl as a meal. I used some of the Salvadoran cabbage salad as a substitute for shredded cabbage and it worked fine. The hominy was clearly not canned, although that would be OK. It was cooked from fresh elote kernals. Like I said, homemade food. I took enough pork and posole home for two more meals! This a great place for straight forward home cooked Mexican and Salvadoran food. I can't wait to return for some lengua en salsa verde.

Very rude server we ate there a out 2wks ago Sunday sept 26. The server was very rude when i asked…read moreif they had Salvadoran quesadillas she said NO and walked away then i asked if they had empanadas she said yes and walked away again we order through the phone and ate there but she didn't even offer us a drink! Will definitely not come back.

You won't go wrong with El Patio. Excellent flavors and a charming atmosphere make for an enjoyable…read moreexperience. They don't actually have a patio unfortunately, but the indoor seating is newly renovated and features unique artwork by a local artist, using characters based on a Mexican TV show El Chavo del Ocho.

I've lived in Mexico in Columbia and I still love Latino food and culture. Growing up and Iowa City…read morewe played against West liberty and I always love that. This community had diversity opposed to every other adjacent redneck towns. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing but the enchilada rice and other things was nothing special or was the piña colada that felt no alcoholic. With all that being said, I thought it would at least be cheap but the prices were the same as Iowa City the drinks eight dollars in the meal about 15.

Our baseball team and families from out of town were looking for a place for a team dinner after a…read morelate game - we called ahead to see if they could take us on. They immediately said yes and 30 of us showed up 30 minutes later. They were phenomenal and did such a great job handling our large crowd of chaos! The food was delicious and I would definitely recommend! Thank you so much for taking on this challenge and handling it so well! We appreciate it!

This restaurant is so delicious great workers super nice the food is high quality and it has so may…read moreoptions their decorations are amazing and very traditional I think this is a great spot for people to come and hang out not to mention is so affordable

We found ourselves at Diamond Dave's on July 4th. One of the few places (not fast food) that were…read moreopen and not closing too early. I'd called to make sure they were open. The gentleman I spoke to on the the phone was friendly and let me know they were. We were greeted right away when we walked in and told to take a seat wherever we wanted to. Seating with mostly low top tables and booths. Our server (a woman my age...mid 50s maybe) popped over right away. Very personable and made sure we were finding everything okay. We started with a fountain drink and water, the jalapeno queso, and some jalapeno poppers. Heather had the ground beef chimichanga plate and I had the chicken alambre dinner. Now... I wouldn't necessarily call this Mexican food... Definitely Tex Mex. And that's okay...! I just don't want to give anyone the illusion that it's authentic Mexican. As if the Dave's in the name doesn't probably already do that... Lol What I will say is the food is very good. Big chunks of chicken, creamy cheese, chorizo, and bacon... My chicken alambre dinner... C'mon! There is nothing not to like there! The beans, rice, and salad were on point too. For what it is everything was great and cooked just the way it should be. The gem here though...was the staff! On a holiday... So great to their guests. We got in a conversation with our server and the gentleman working about the best place to see fireworks etc. if you don't like crowds. I'd worked in Muscatine back in the day, probably 25-30ish years ago, and obviously didn't remember much about the area... It was just a good conversation and still really stands out in my mind. There wasn't anything wrong with our food, but if there was, staff like this makes any mistake easy to forgive. Sometimes it's really more about the experience than it is about the food itself. Kudos! And thank you for being open for a couple of travelers who just needed to get out of the Des Moines metro for a couple of days...

I come here for nostalgia mostly, but the food is yummy as well! We always get a macho nacho to…read moreshare. The staff are always friendly and we aren't ever left waiting.

Full-bodied. Comforting, yet complex. It feels like home…read more Casual environment. Like a family gathering, with fun uncles in the corner who drink just enough. Must go. Tacos Al Pastor.

The greatest place to eat in Iowa City. Número Uno. I just want to say thank you from the bottom…read moreof my heart to everyone who works there. The food, service, and ambiance is 10/10. The passion you put into the food and the business does not go unseen. We appreciate it.

Ms T and I have spent a considerable number of nights back in Muscatine lately and finally had a…read morechance to eat at a few of the local restaurants that we had not been able to try before. I had three meals at El Allende was pleasantly surprised to find another good place for above average Mexican. Muscatine has at least four credible Mexican restaurants; El Olmito, El Allende, Las Lomas and Guadalajara. I have tried them all and rank them in the order given, but all are OK. I have not tried Restaurant Izalco. We ate lunch here one time and dinner one time. For Lunch I passed on the buffet although the place was crowded with people making good on the opportunity to overeat. I asked for huevos con chorizo with fresh chiles jalapenos and the server knew exactly what I wanted. She delivered an excellent plate with good soft white corn tortillas. This was a very well prepared lunch. She seemed pleased that I would order the chiles in the eggs and ask for corn tortillas. For dinner, I was joined by Mr G who had helped me with a project earlier in the day. I was paying him with food and beer. This time I noticed chilaquiles on the menu and ordered what turned out to be some of the best I have had in a while. I have driven by this place dozens of times. The building is not very inviting. I kind of pictured a dark bar sort of place, not sure why. It is really a nice clean, family run place. I had not been the building since the Peking was housed here many, many years ago. I really developed a good feeling about El Allende. I don't think I would participate in the buffet. What I ordered from the menu was too good and I was not impressed with the buffet. Business appears to be good, there were a lot of people at lunch and dinner seemed busy as well. When we lived in Muscatine we frequented El Zarape until Paul and Gloria sold it and then we were regulars at Imelda's. Both are long gone but we had a lot of good meals there with our kids. If I lived here again, I would be pretty happy with the selection of Mexican food and would try to rotate through El Allende, Las Lomas, Guadalajara and probably Izalco (Need to try it). I would reserve a special place on my lunch schedule to get tacos at El Olmito. I hope Muscatine appreciates these places. I'm going with four stars and am looking forward to coming back.

Pretty good but there is definitely better and cheaper Mexican food in Muscatine. They've got…read moreveggie fajitas and a couple other vegetarian options. The portion size was not as big as some other places, however the veggie skillet came out sizzling for quite a long time. The veggies were perfect, very soft and bursting with flavor. The rice and beans, however, were not great. The guacamole and pico de gallo were fine but nothing exceptional. The chips are light and airy and the salsa is very runny. Could benefit from having some Mexican music play in the background instead of the news, but they may have it on during lunch and dinner hours. We went at 3:30 pm so our experience may not have been typical

Never lets me down excellent service, and one of the best burritos I've ever had. There's a lot of…read moregreat Mexican food in Muscatine, but Chicharo's is some of the best.

Burrito fell apart and wasn't wraaped to begin with. A bunch of teenagers working there and nobo…read morecould wrap a burrito correctly. It turned into mush. Flavor was great but that killed my experience!

Great food. Authentic. Enjoyed the beer and the chorizo tacos were amazing. Highly recommend this…read moreplace

BEST MEXICAN IN CORALVILLE!! I'm from california and have been struggling to find authentic mexican…read morefood in Iowa but finally hit the jackpot. Al pastor was delicious, guacamole was so fresh and creamy, and all the salsas were amazing but the lite green was my personal favorite. It is also a family rum business which I love. I will be back and bring all my family and friends.